


Hello, Leo.

by yerdua



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Sad Ending, but you know it's somewhat nice too, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2018-01-01 17:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1046383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yerdua/pseuds/yerdua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div>
  <p>Based on Viria's fanart and the Doctor Who episode <i>The Doctor's Wife</i>.</p>
  <p>"She's the Argo?"</p>
  <p>"Yeah."</p>
  <p>"My Argo?"</p>
  <p>"Yep."</p>
  <p>"And…and….and she's a girl!"</p>
  <p>"Yes, Valdez."</p>
  <p>"Dude, she's a girl and she's the Argo! She's my Argo!"</p>
  <p>"…yeah."</p>
  <p>[Disclaimer: Some dialogue is inspired by DW quotes and what I found on the fanart :D] </p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Hello, Leo.

**Author's Note:**

> This might hurt. 
> 
> (link to fanart: viria.tumblr.com/post/48128551115/taotrooper-said-shes-the-argo-and-shes-a)

When Leo dreams, he tends to catch fire a lot. Especially when he dreams about girls. Dream-Leo was standing on a high-up pedestal, grinning down in triumph at a horde of frenzied girls trying to reach up for him. He soaked in the attention, chanting "All the ladies _looooooove_ Leo!" as he walked around the pedestal, winking at his admirers.

"GODS, LEO, _AGAIN_?!"

Leo woke up to the sight of Percy viciously attacking Leo's flaming firetruck bedsheets with a red compact fire extinguisher. The white mist enveloped Leo, nearly choking him with its stench. Percy, having learned his lesson the other day, was all geared up in a surgeon mask and flowery oven mitts. After a few more sporadic puffs of carbon dioxide, Leo's room was left looking like a winter wonderland.

"Looks like _Percy_ saves the day yet again." Percy announced gleefully, striking a Herculean pose. He then attempted to spin the fire extinguisher around his hand like a baton but ended up smacking his chin in the process. "Ow…" he muttered, glaring at Leo as he rolled around the snowy floor in hysterics. "Well anyways, you might wanna go on deck. We found something…well, _someone_ you might be interested in. Just try not to set your pants on fire."

\--

"She's the Argo?"

"Yeah."

" _My_ Argo?"

"Yep."

"And…and….and she's a _girl_!"

"Yes, Valdez."

"Dude, she's a girl and she's the Argo! She's my Argo!"

"…yeah."

As Leo giggled and pranced all over the deck, the Argo was wandering around and inspecting her equipment. She mentally took down a list of loose panels that Leo had missed out on and reminded herself to get her fragment links hot-wired. After all, she could finally tell him what was wrong rather than having to send all those morse code messages through Festus. She was broken out of her thoughts when Leo came at a halt in front of her, eyes glistening with amazement.

"Gods," he breathed, nervously reaching down for her hand. She squeezed his fingers unthinkingly, looking up to offer him a wide, gap-toothed smile. His heart tingled with electricity as he pulled her in for a bear hug. "My Argo. You're _my_ Argo." he laughed into her warm nutmeg hair, inhaling her sharp scent of petroleum. "And you're my mechanic." she replied, reciprocating his hug with an unexpected iron grip.

Leo held her away from him at shoulder-length to assess her physique. Her metal-plated dress made her look like a female gladiator, allowing her to pull off a 'hot warrior princess' look perfectly. A golden helmet identical to Festus' head sat perched on her wavy hair, shining in the morning sun. She had soft features, with light brown freckles dotted across her button nose. Gold flecks were scattered throughout her chocolatey eyes and a moderate amount of amber eyeliner accentuated their upturned shape. Her lips were full, pigmented a glossy shade of wine.

Everything was pretty much amazing…until Leo actually saw just _how_ unbelievable the situation was.

"Wait, how can you be the Argo? I mean like, wouldn't that mean I'd be…well, standing on you right now?" he asked, lightly knocking on a wooden column to stress his point.

"Precisely why he put me in here."

"He?"

"Hephaestus, of course."

If this was Hephaestus' idea of an early birthday gift, then he sure deserved a 'Best Olympian Dad' mug from Leo next Father's Day. "Dad? Why?" Leo asked as a wisp of his hair ignited and withered away with a hiss. "His idea of a…good job reward." replied the Argo.

"But how are you in there," Leo poked her shoulder jerkily, making her stumble back a bit. "And under us at the same time?"

"You know about _castings_ , right?"

"Well duh, I'm a mechanic. They're anything made out of melted metal poured into a mold."

"Think of it in that context."

The gears started turning in Leo's head. He thought of the process of making a casting. You had to liquify metal in order to get it to conform to a mold's shape. It was basically condensing something into a more manageable form so that it could comply with the limitations of a frame.

More manageable. A mold.

"Holy mother, did he take your soul and put it into a girl's body?"

"Yep."

 --

"Dammit, Leo! YOU CAN'T SUPERSEDE MY BINARY–"

Leo pulled his goggles off his face, throwing them aside. He groaned, slapping a palm to his forehead. "Gods, WOMAN. Let me work!" The Argo laughed sarcastically, holding her hands up in mock surrender. "Well I'm sorry, Mr. Mechanic! Sorry for telling you how to handle my own internal hardware!"

Leo kicked his legs off the ground forcefully, pushing himself up. He was currently hanging on a swing, working Michaelangelo-style on a faulty dashboard. The Argo decided to follow him into the repair room, looking like Rosie the Riveter in her bandanna and rolled up polo shirt. He so didn't find it hot, shut up.

"Exactly, _señorita_. I'm the mechanic, so take a seat and let me do my job." The Argo rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "I came along to prevent you from messing anything else up. Remember last month, when you gave me _cooking oil_? How stupid was that?!" Leo grumbled at the memory, tightening a screw absentmindedly. "That was last resort, honey! We were 4 miles away from any land and we would've crashed!"

"How do you think you'd react to leftover cooking oil being poured down your throat after a long journey through the Mediterranean? Huh? How'd you like that, Flamey Boy?" Leo scowled, turning back to give her a stink eye. She looked so cute, all pouty and covered in grease. He shook his head, going back to work. _Keep it cool, Valdez._ he told himself as a loose thread on his shirt burst into flames.

"Are you even paying attention to me, Valdez?" she interrogated, walking over to him. "When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna–" her accusation was cut off by a yelp as she slipped on a rogue sliding board. Leo whirled around, yelling "Be careful!" as he ran over to catch her.

Unfortunately, being the scrawny little schmuck he was, Leo fell down with her.

The Argo hit the floor with a thud, Leo landing on top of her. She groaned in pain, then blushed at the compromising position they were forced into. Leo, still wincing in discomfort, looked down at her. She was flushed violently, trying to look at anything but Leo's face. He breathed out, the Argo catching a whiff of the orange juice he'd drank earlier that morning.

_Sweet almighty Hera, please don't make me regret this._

He gulped, slowly lowering his face to hers. Just as he was about to reach her lips, she jerked her head to face him and unintentionally did the job for him. They both froze, their lips slack against one another's. And then Leo came to his senses.

Once they pulled away, Leo sighed shakily, running his thumbs over her shoulders.

"Don't think I'm gonna let your manhandling of my equipment slide _just_ because we kissed, Valdez. I've got a list of complaints I'd like to–" Leo smirked in victory, cutting off her sentence in half as he deepened their kiss.

She found that she didn't care.

\--

"Hey, honey?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you pass me the Pledge?"

The Argo walked across the deck to hand Leo the plastic bottle, leaning over his shoulder to peck his cheek sweetly. The rest of the group gave a collective 'awwww' at the sight. Leo grinned, a pink flush growing at the back of his neck. He turned back to face the window, spraying it with a whirlwind of lemony goodness. The Argo grinned, winding her arms around Leo's middle, resting her head on his shoulder. Leo nuzzled his head back into her face, causing her to splutter and cough on his wiry curls. She swatted him with a rag, going back to cleaning the railings.

"You guys are as disgusting as my mother's love schemes." commented Piper, scowling down at Katoptris' blade. She hadn't gotten anything in over a week, just the occasional image of the Stoll brothers looting the Camp store. Jason reached over for her hand, giving it a supportive squeeze. She smiled, leaning over to give Jason a kiss. "Ugh. Says you." muttered Annabeth from the corner, wrapped up in Percy's arms. They'd been arguing about their latest duel, and how she'd _obviously cheated I mean come on Wise Girl_.

Frank and Hazel were sitting by the ledge of the ship, arms brushing as they talked about gods-knew-what. Hazel probably wasn't that comfortable yet with displaying that much PDA, as she pretty much fanned her face at anything the Argo and Leo did. Leo beamed, climbing down from his stool and brushing himself off. Sure, they were on a quest to save Nico di Angelo from becoming dead meat and all (not to mention the angry Romans currently chasing them), but things were going so well, it was like they were just a bunch of normal kids goofing around on a magical ship. Yeah, _just a bunch of normal kids_. Leo thought longingly as he caught Percy douse Annabeth with a torrent of salt water from the corner of his eye.

\--

They started sharing a bed once the Argo ran to his room one night, trembling from her latest nightmare. Could machines even have nightmares? But then he remembered, she was a girl now. (Or was she? Leo could swear he'd seen her drinking an ice-cold glass of grease like it was a Slurpee one hot afternoon) And it appeared as if she was having just as much luck with a good night's sleep as most demigods did.

The whole idea of sleeping together wasn't that big of a deal, really. They'd just stay side-by-side, holding onto each other until they had to get up the next day. It was comforting, Leo thought, to have someone to hug when dreams would haunt him longer than they should have. Sometimes he'd catch the Argo crying at night, even before she'd fallen asleep. Whenever he tried to ask her what was wrong, she'd turn her head into the pillow, shaking her head in refusal. All he could do was hold her tight, hoping the kisses he'd press to her neck would be enough to calm her down.

\--

"What's gonna happen to us when the war's over?" Leo had asked one day, when they were laid out on the deck watching the clouds pass by. The Argo, whose head was lying on his chest with her eyes closed blissfully, suddenly froze. Leo panicked, rushing to cover up his words. "I mean, you know, assuming we're gonna defeat Gaia and all, what's gonna happen to us? Are you gonna come with me to Camp Half-Blood or do you wanna do something else…?" he trailed off, sensing her discomfort. _Smooth, Valdez, just smooth_.

"Maybe we shouldn't look too far into the future. We never know what lies ahead." she said, burying her face deeper into his shirt. Leo looked down in confusion, his eyebrows lifting in concern. "It's just something nice to think about…" he answered, tilting his head back up to the clouds. Whatever. If she didn't want to make any big plans yet, he could wait for her, no big deal.

He tried to ignore the sound of her soft whimpering on his chest, running his hands down her back to calm her down.

 --

A week had passed before it happened. Leo and the Argo were examining a popped circuit when the ship jolted and began tilting downwards. Leo protectively pulled the Argo to his chest, shielding her as much as he could from the furniture heading towards them. Once they were safe, he turned around to bolt for the control room. He found the rest of the crew there, Jason and Piper frantically pressing buttons as Frank hysterically waved around the Wii remote steering wheel like he was playing a tennis match against Ares.

"Did anyone touch anything?!" screamed Leo, rushing around to examine the settings.

"No, we just started falling!" shouted Piper as her braids starting flying, blocking her vision. Everyone was then thrown upwards, screaming. "The controls are all stationary, what's happening?! ACTIVATE EMERGENCY POWER!" Leo yelled. Festus groaned from the deck, morse code echoing loudly through the ship.

"What?! How can we be out of emergency power, it's supposed to last a whole week!"

The Argo bit her lip, trying to steady herself by grabbing onto a console. "I'm so sorry, Leo." she breathed through the whooshing of air. "For what?" he asked, reaching over to cup her cheek. She turned her head, closing her eyes. "It's me. It's my fault."

"What?"

"Come on, Leo. You know that miracles never happen without a cost. Nothing lasts forever, remember?"

A wave of nostalgia hit him. His dad had told him that all those months ago, before the Argo was even made. "When he took my soul from the ship, there was a price. You can't make something work without a soul, human or machine. It's just not how life goes."

Leo choked, biting back hot tears. "So what?" he asked shakily. "You…you just leave? After all the time we spent together? You leave me alone?" The Argo started sniffling, nodding. "The only way you can save yourself is to let me go…it's the only way." Leo let out a sob, tugged her to him and clutched her as though she was going to disappear.

But she was, wasn't she?

"Leo…let me go. You'll all die if you don't _let me go_."

He sobbed into her shoulder, shuddering. His friends all watched, covering their mouths and trying not to tear up. He was so vulnerable, so shattered…so un-Leo. "But you're perfect, you were _made_ for me. I _made_ you. You're–" he mumbled, trailing off. The Argo ran her hands through his hair, desperately trying to calm him down. She could see the ocean growing larger through the window. There wasn't any more time left.

She lifted up his chin, gasping at his bloodshot eyes. She pressed a kiss to his forehead, her tears transferring from her cheeks to his. "Just remember this, Leo. Remember what we had. Remember the time that we got to talk. So I just wanted to say hello, Leo. It was so very, very nice to meet you. And thank you. Thank you."

Leo suddenly lunged forward, capturing her lips in his. It was bittersweet, spiked with saltiness as their tears mixed together. "I love you," they both whispered simultaneously. She pulled away slowly, looking into his coffee brown eyes. She shut her own orbs, taking in the last thing she'd see. Leo.

"I'm ready," she breathed, lifting her chin up to the sky.

Leo covered his face, continuing to sob as the Argo started drifting upwards. She was lifted to the ceiling as she spread her arms open, breathing heavily. She began to glow, like a candle in the darkness; slowly but enveloping the room with light. Bronze and gold spheres floated around as her body grew fainter with each passing second.

Soon, she was gone.

The ship leveled itself, lights starting to flicker back on and the hum of machines overwhelming the silence. The crew stood shakily, eyeing Leo's trembling form. He was crouched on the floor, turned away from his friends. They all shuffled out one by one, each stopping to hug him or lay a tender kiss on his curls. Then he was alone.

 _"Thank you."_ echoed a soft voice, followed by the affectionate drone of the devices in the control room. Leo pulled himself up, walking around the control room slowly. He stroked her golden helmet, left behind on a control panel. Leo looked up, smiling to himself wistfully.

 

_"Just you and me, old girl. It always has been."_

**Author's Note:**

> Did it hurt?


End file.
